High school girls soccer: Hawken falls in state title match on penalty kicks

COLUMBUS — The final act for Kat Zalar and Mackenzie Lesnick wearing the familiar red and white of Hawken was the hardest Friday after the Division III state championship match against Hamilton Badin.
Instead of leading a celebration that was so close to fruition, the Hawks’ lone seniors had to lead the reassurance that it was going to be all right. One day it will feel better, but this day unfortunately was not it.
Badin goalkeeper Michelle Hessling made a save in the fourth round of a penalty-kick shootout, converted her own from the spot to give her team the advantage, and the Hawks’ fifth-round penalty kick was not converted as Hawken fell, 4-3, on PKs after the sides played to a 2-2 stalemate after regulation and overtime.
The Hawks (16-2-5) held a 2-0 lead approaching the hour mark after a pair of Zalar first-half strikes, but the adage about a two-goal advantage being the most tedious in soccer was unforgiving and astute.
“We made history, making it here,” Zalar said. “So that’s one (legacy) we leave behind. I think being remembered is good enough for us, and just knowing that we were really a team this year. And I hope that stays with everyone.”
Hawken opened its account in the sixth minute. Bianca Medancic made an attacking run into the left side of the box, was grabbed and taken down. The center official pointed to the spot, and Zalar, a Miami (Ohio) recruit, stepped up and slotted a right-footed effort to the lower-left corner.
Then in the 23rd minute, in a sequence eerily similar in some ways to the Mentor boys’ match-winner Wednesday in a Division I state semifinal against Anthony Wayne, Zalar deflected a goalkeeper kick after a back pass and walked in a tap-in for her 26th goal of the fall and a 2-0 lead.
“Well, it was great when we went up, 2-0,” Lesnick said. “We came back at the half, and we knew we still had to keep working hard. But the shots they put in were amazing.”
The first came in the 60th minute when Rams sophomore midfielder Malia Berkely, a United States under-15 national pool player, finished a quality right-footed strike from the top of the box inside the left post to give her side a lifeline at 2-1. Perhaps even more impressive was the buildup for the equalizer in the 74th minute. Gabby Geigle delivered a picture-perfect diagonal ball to Morgan Langhammer, who pounded home the finish to force extra time.
Early in the second half of overtime, Lesnick made Hessling come up with a nice tip save on a high right-footed bender. In the 107th minute, Medancic got a through ball to Zalar, but Hessling rose to the occasion, coming off her line to turn away Zalar’s bid for the match-winner and send a well-played match to penalty kicks.
“It’s two teams fighting for the championship,” Hawks coach Stan Shulman said. “That’s how championship games are supposed to be. That’s why it was a great game to watch.”
Great to watch from a Hawken point of view — until the cruel swing of the shootout.
After the match, Lesnick played the role of consoler, going to her younger teammates, including Medancic, to lend some encouragement that, despite the cruelty of the moment, it was going to be all right eventually.
“I kept telling everyone, ‘Stop crying,’” said Lesnick, a Kent State recruit. “I was so proud of everyone. I wanted to make it here.
“We made history today. This is the first time a Hawken girls team has ever made it to (a state final). I was just telling them, ‘Keep your heads up.’ This is more than I could have ever asked for in my senior year.”

Note: Full audio interviews with Shulman, Lesnick and Zalar can be found here.